1.  Mega Bloks have been Mckai's favorites for a really long time. My mom got them for him for his first birthday and he hasn't looked back since. I love that they help his hand-eye coordination by stacking them and I love that we can work on grouping them by color and size. They can make quite a mess but Mckai is actually great at putting them away. He learned that he won't put them away unless they are all disconnected :)
2.  First, we love all wooden toys. This colorful stacker, wooden cars and tractors, wooden toys are the best.  Second, every toddler needs a play phone. Mckai got the one in the picture for free when we bought him blocks for Christmas from Bannor Toys and he ended up liking it more than the blocks :)
3. Tommee Tippee plates: We love these because Mckai can't stand when his food is mixed (heaven help us...) so these keep his food separated. I also love them because they help me feed him a variety of food, one section is for fruit, one section is for grains/protein, and one section for vegetables.
4. Tommee Tippee bowls: These bowls suction to the table! Need I say more? Google will tell more.
5. Nalgene sippy cups: We've tried a lot of sippy cups and these are by far the best. Super durable (toddlers throw things apparently...) and they never leak! Mckai likes the hole in the lid so that he can easily carry them around.
6. Little Tikes slide: Mckai will go up and down this slide hundreds of times a day. During the winter it works great in our living room to get all that toddler energy out indoors but it can easily be moved outside during the summer months. We haven't had the chance to use it during the summer because we always move away but at my mom's house we put it into a kiddie pool and that keeps the kids entertained for a long time!
7. A spinning toothbrush is a must for Mckai these days. We all dread the teeth brushing time but the electric toothbrush makes it just a little bit better for us all :)
8. Britax Boulevard: There are SO many carseat choices it is overwhelming. I ended up letting Tristan make the final choice and he picked so good! We love this carseat. It looks so comfortable, Mckai's head never falls forward, and the click tight feature makes it super easy to install. The only downside that I've found so far is that it is extremely heavy! We traveled with it to Hawaii to Utah and back to California. It was a huge pain because of how heavy it is. I thought that the weight was just normal for a convertible carseat but we bought other carseats (Evenflo Symphony DLX) for Tristan and Miranda's cars and it is not that that heavy. The Evenflo is also easy to install so it would be a good carseat for someone who needs to move it from car to car frequently. The things I don't like about it is that Mckai's head falls forward if he falls asleep and the straps don't seem as comfortable for him.
9. Puzzles: Mckai's first puzzle was this one and though he wasn't very good at it at first, he still loved it because it made noises. We then bought him a puzzle from Hawaii. It didn't have the pictures underneath the puzzle piece so I was surprised when Mckai figured it out so quickly. I'd say the best puzzles for this age are the ones with wooden pegs (making them easy to take out and put back in) and the ones with the picture behind the puzzle piece. Puzzles are so good for a developing toddler. I once read that a happy kid is one who is learning. Puzzles are a toy that I feel like does that for Mckai!

and finally, these are a few things we are still using almost since the day he was born... homedics deep sleep sound machine, the ergo360 (yes he still fits and yes I still use it for everything from the airport to hikes!), and binkys. those were all GREAT investments!

I can't believe I have a two year old, what do I need for this age?